> The bizarre thing is that even before the pandemic I've seen popular Bay Area restaurants close down due to huge rent increases and then the spaces are still vacant years later. I don't understand what commercial landlords are thinking?
If its anything like what I saw in Boulder, most are held by large companies (TEBO) who can write off the losses come tax year because they have other more profitable locations/sites.
The restaurant I came out of retirement on in 2018 has been vacant since Summer of 2018, just to give context that building was $13k/month before operational costs, which were immense due to it be an incredibly old building. I personally had to patch up the pipesdue to massive leaks as our dishwasher wasn't getting enough pressure and my station was getting all the run off I had run to FOH get some wine cork to plug the holes and used a bunch of duct tape until the plumber could get there for the next week of service.
I think I overheard the Sous and Execs saying where I last worked that rent was 20k/month for the flagship, which on a busy night we could clear in a single days (day/night) service.
The further this has gone on, Colorado only just lifted its stay at home order today, the more I think I've hung up my whites and knives professionally for good this time.
By contrast, this is what is happening in Hong Kong, as they have captured the loyalty of their patrons and are months ahead of most country in terms of Covid19 recovery [1]:
1: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-hongkong-protests-mayday/...